Donald Trump's latest tariff war emerges from a decades-long personal belief that America's trading partners are "pickpockets" who must be punished, rather than from conventional economic strategy.
As Bloomberg's Timothy L. O'Brien explains, searching for rational policy goals in Trump's tariffs misses the point entirely. The driving force is revenge, not economics. "His primary aim is to address his grievances with the world, not to craft substantive or even rational public policy," O'Brien writes. Trump has harbored these resentments about trade for decades, viewing America's closest allies as thieves who need to be taught a lesson.
Rather than careful economic analysis, Trump personally created the tariff formula just hours before his announcement. The result targeted unlikely threats like Cambodia and Thailand, while bizarrely including uninhabited Antarctic islands. When markets plunged $5.4 trillion in two days, Trump remained unmoved, posting golf videos on social media.
Even his own White House team acknowledges this is pure Trump unleashed. "He's at the peak of just not giving a f— anymore," one official told The Washington Post.
"I imagine this trade war will get worse before it gets better," O'Brien concludes, "simply because Trump has spent decades allowing his own house to burn down rather than admit he was wrong."
Previously:
• Stocks plunge further as tariff news sinks in
• MAGA boasts of tariff 'deals' with Canada and Mexico while rest of world laughs: 'Trump got played!'
• Trump crows about champagne tariffs while stocks plunge yet again
